Website design is constantly evolving. You want a design that will help your audience convert to paying customers.

You also want a website that is up today’s standards and not stuck in the past.

Here are some of the website design trends happening in 2017:

Full Width Images and/or Video Sliders. Studies show large images make people stop and notice. The image must be exceptional and unique (avoid stock photos). This contributes to a high conversion level.

Split-Screen Layouts. This allows your audience to go to where they will be most likely to convert.

Monochromatic Colors. Your CTA (Call To Action) button will stand out if you use a bright spot of color on an otherwise neutral or contrasting color palette.

Simple Navigation. Make it easy for people to find what their looking for. Avoid deep menus that require a lot of clicks.

Video. A level of trust is needed to convert your audience into clients. A video will allow you to personalize your brand. You will see more and more videos on the home page of websites today.

Responsive Design. A responsive web design is one that fills all screen sizes optimally. This is a must as an increasing number of people use their mobile devices to search up websites.

These are tips to keep in mind, whether you’re needing a new website or revising an existing one. Don’t let your business get left behind.

Contact us for a free quote today!

Google is about to update their algorithm again which will affect how they analyze your website. Having a mobile-friendly website is vital to your success online.

Mobile-friendly websites will soon rank higher on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP). If your site is not mobile-friendly it’s likely to become less relevant and disappear from prominent search results.

Studies show that time spent daily on a mobile device has increased more than 5X from 2011 to 2014. Searching, browsing and shopping are all going mobile. 40 percent of all search queries are from mobile devices. And that number is growing.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile users, you’re probably losing business. In fact, with a mobile optimized site, you can expect to convert up to twice as many people as you would without optimizing for mobile customers.

If your website looks good and works well on smartphones and tablets, you can expect up to twice as many conversions compared to a less-than-optimal display. That’s because customers who search for you on their mobile device expect a webpage specifically designed for smaller screens, like smartphones and tablets. Otherwise, it’s just too hard to use your website and customers give up. The result: no conversion.

It’s crucial to your business that your website is easy to read, navigate and click on all devices, especially mobile.

Don’t ignore print marketing.

It may be “old school” but many people still rely on printed materials to get their news and make their buying decisions.

One of the ways I get new business is to send out persuasive sales letters to new businesses that have a DBA (doing business as) in the local newspapers. I find it in the classifieds section. I’ve been doing this for many years and it still works.

Of course you have to start out with a professional sales letter. I keep things simple. All text, few graphics. You have to say what you do explicitly and show the reader the benefits of giving you a call.

Inside each sales letter I include my business card with my catchy twisted pencil logo. Hopefully the pencil will never go out of style. Did you know they still use pencils in elementary school?

Business Cards are still a powerful social media tool.

We may be in the midst of a digital revolution, but the mighty business card is still being used daily. Yes indeed, people hand out business cards all the time. It’s easy to do and stackable too. And if you’re completely digital you can always scan a business card into your smartphone for easy access.

So make sure your business cards shows the real you. Your brand image should be consistent across all media. Really.

And of course don’t forget all the important information for your business cards:

Name

Address

Telephone Number

Email Address

Website URL

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Names

Here’s a summary of why you should always use a business card as a marketing tool:

Easy to hand out at events and in person

Shows your brand and all the important info a client needs to find you

Can be wild or classy, being memorable is important

An inexpensive way to advertise your business

Can also be used to win free lunches at some (old school) restaurants

Brochures are hanging on

Don’t rule out full color brochures either. They work great as a “leave behind”. This is especially true at trade shows and business mixers.

Postcards, Catalogs and Door Hangers are still in the mix.

So while you can see the digital age is taking over marketing, there will absolutely be a place for print for quite some time. Printed materials are tangible. There’s less competition in print than online so you’ll stand out.

By combining print marketing with online marketing you’ll have a stronger presence and perhaps drive more traffic to your website.

Are you an entrepreneur?

I started Creative Juices in 1981. I was a mere child. There was no internet. There was no Mac. There was little competition.

Today life is much more complicated for small business owners. There are lots of things to be aware of. I’m going to list a few of the ones directly related your business image.

First Impressions are Very Important

Get a logo design. It must be clean, professional, and timeless. It should represent you and your company.

Start a website. This is the hub of your business. Everything flows from and to your site. This includes all social media.

Create an email list. You must encourage visitors to give their email addresses on your site in order to stay in touch with current and potential clients. Perhaps offer a free ebook or newsletter.

Set up a newsletter. Regular newsletters are a great way to get people to remember you.

This is only a tiny bit of information to help get you started, graphically speaking. There’s a whole lot of other stuff you should know. My goal is to help you get your business going in the right direction.

You can never have too much information (or can you?!) Check out the following business related articles:

This is part of my new series of article collections. I regularly read the latest RSS feeds from blogs related to business marketing, such as Entrepreneur, Anthony Morrison, and ProBlogger. In today’s busy world it’s often difficult to find time to read.

But modern technology came to the rescue. I have my iPhone, iPad, and Kindle to help me catch up with my daily search for news. My favorite place to read is while exercising on the StairMaster at the gym. Every day I climb and read for an hour. Not only do I stay healthy but I get to read uninterrupted.

The following articles cover ways to be a successful business owner by boosting year-end sales, how to utilize Google+ pages for your company, how to store your data in the cloud, how to advance your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) through social marketing, and how to stay out of trouble if you’re a blogger. Let me know what you think.

In the beginning, there was Compugraphic

Once upon a time, in the late 1970’s, I used to run a typesetting machine. It was an old Compugraphic Imagewriter, a blue electronic box with a typewriting keyboard and a display screen consisting of a single line of type. The type was all caps. A simple arrow let you know if the type was in lower or upper case.

To typeset a job you had to visualize the entire layout in your head. Or you could sketch it out, if you were so inclined. And here’s the fun part, every time you wanted to change the font, you had to open the machine and change a film strip. Each font was on a different film strip, which had to be carefully attached to a roller of sorts. And they were expensive.

What you got was all there was

Even more fun, there was no memory beyond what you were currently working on. As soon as you set the machine to process the text to film or photo paper, it was gone. Yes, GONE.

Once a job was printed out it could be pasted up on a job board, using hot wax. Corrections and changes had to be entirely re-typed and pasted up.

Typesetting was a sought after specialty

For graphic design companies this was great news. It meant few people would be able to design, typeset and create their own ads, flyers, forms, brochures, business cards, etc. When you wanted these products you would visit the printer or graphic arts studio.

Today, free templates seem to be everywhere

Times have changed. Now all you have to do is turn on your iMac or similar PC type machine, select any one of hundreds or thousands of free templates and “create” your own, unique artwork. Changes are easily made and printing is at a touch of a button. Just remember, though. Free is not always better. If you truly want a professional, unique website, logo or design project, call Chuck at 310-791-5803. Just saying.

What is a font?

The dictionary describes a font as “a set of type of one particular face and size”.

Fonts are a breeze. Hundreds are included free with almost any program and thousands are available online, also for free. Just search and download.

Here are just some of my favorite places for finding free type fonts. Most have Windows and Mac versions.

When using free fonts make sure you read the licensing agreements. A lot of these fonts are available for personal, not commercial use.

The very popular Doris Day font

Everybody loves Doris Day. The 1950s was a great time. Business was booming, as were babies. I was born in that era. Relive the nostalgia of the 1950s with a perky script font that says Doris Day.